


Won't you tell me

by actual_musical_trash



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Apocalypse, Injured Ted, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Gore, Slow Burn, tedgens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-01-23 03:03:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 13,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18540976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actual_musical_trash/pseuds/actual_musical_trash
Summary: Henry runs into some new friends, trying to survive this Hatchetfield-pocalypse, maybe ending up as more than friends.





	1. Chapter one

I turned off my TV. The meteor had only landed four days ago and they had already shut down all transportation off of the island. Fools. We weren't going to be helped by anyone now. And at this rate, most of the island was probably already infected, or would be very soon.

I paced across my lab. What were my options... Build a boat, learn how to sail, build some sort of aircraft, learn how to fly. Or, stay here, work on a cure. That one seemed like the most logical one. In college I dabbled in viral studies and majored in biology, so this would be just like...another lab. Yes, I just had to think of it as a silly project. The worst thing that could happen was a bad grade...

If I wanted to find a cure, I would need something to work with. I grabbed my shotgun from the hidden compartment in my coffee table.

"Alexa! Open the gates!"

I hesitated to leave what was probably the safest place in Hatchetfield, but I knew what needed to be done. I needed to get a sample, get it under a microscope. As I reached the front gate at the end of my driveway, I started to call for Alexa, but then I realized she wouldn't be able to hear me from out here. I manually locked the gate, and set off for the town.

I figured downtown Hatchetfield would be the most densely populated area, easiest place to find a mindless zombie or two. I just hoped I wouldn't run into too big of a group, this late at night. As I wandered through town, I noticed how deserted the usually busy stores seemed. If town were like this more, maybe I'd be more comfortable with leaving my house. Not that I was happy about the apocalypse, I just enjoyed the stillness of the nighttime setting over the empty streets.

I was lost in my thoughts almost entirely when I heard singing off in the distance. A few notes, perfectly pitched, it couldn't have been more than two people at most. I quickened my pace, gun at the ready. But I realized the singing was getting louder, more and more voices joining in. I stumbled to a halt. I wasn't prepared for more than maybe five people, I don't think I could handle a herd... As stupid as I knew it was, I stood motionless until...

"Hey, mister! Over here"

A whisper from inside a nearby store front. It could be a trap... But it had a higher chance of survival than standing here out in the open. The door opened quickly and I was pulled inside.

The source of the whisper was a sweet looking lady in a cat sweater.

"Hi, I'm Charlotte."

"... Nice to meet you Charlotte, my name is... Professor Hidgens."

I don't know why I didn't say Henry. Suddenly, a voice from across the room spoke up.

"Charlotte, I can't believe you're just inviting people to our hiding spot. Why don't you just call in a few zombies too, huh?"

In the faint moonlight,I could make out a lean male figure, slumped against the wall.

"I... appreciate the help."

He just huffed and walked into a back room.

"That's Ted, he's... he doesn't take well to strangers."

Hopefully, I wouldn't have to stay here too long...

"So is it just you two? Any other survivors that you know of?"

"Oh, well, one of our coworkers, Bill, he left last night after he got a text from his daughter saying she was stuck somewhere in Hatchetfield, but Ted is insisting that they're both dead... I'm starting to think he may be right... A-and Paul, another coworker, called us the day after the meteor landed, telling us to get out of Hatchetfield, he had taken a ferry out to Clivesdale with some barista that morning... But I-I can't leave without my husband, Sam..."

We walked into the back room.

They had a sort of makeshift bed, a pile of coats, which was occupied by Ted. He even looked grumpy in his sleep. But... he was sort of... visually appealing... Focus, Henry, no time for that now. Charlotte and I sat down and talked, just to pass the time. Somehow, we got to the topic of our favorite Disney movies. She said hers was Beauty and the Beast. When I said mine was Moana, Ted sat up.

"That's a dumb movie. Too much... singing."

I decided to not say anything about the fact that it was, a musical.

"Sorry, did we wake you?"

"nah, I wasn't sleepin'. Just... thinking. With my eyes closed."

We sat in silence for a while, until Charlotte moved to the front room, to keep watch for a bit. Ted just kind of stared at me for a while.

"So, what did you do, before... this happened?"

Ted didn't seem like the type of person to make small talk, but maybe he would make an exception during the end of the world.

"I worked at some tech company. How bout you? Lemme guess... A mime? Cuz of the turtleneck?"

"No... I just like turtlenecks. And mimes aren't known for wearing turtlenecks..."

"Eh... Mimes are lame anyways."

"I was a biology Professor."

"oh man, I was terrible at biology."

I was quite enjoying this conversation with Ted when-

"Sam? Sam!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	2. Chapter two

  
I heard the door open and Ted leapt to his feet, muttering under his breath.

  
"Sam baby, is it really you? Oh Sam I can't believe you're okay!"

  
I followed Ted as he stormed into the front room, his hands clenched in fists, and almost ran into him when he stopped, dead in his tracks. I saw Charlotte hugging a man in a police uniform. A man with... something blue running from the back of his neck, dripping down his chest. His mirrored sunglasses blocked his eyes, but his demonic smile was wider than any normal human's. Ted looked horrified.

  
"Charlotte... His head is...That's-that isn't Sam.... Charlotte get away fr-"

  
She turned over her shoulder with a look of confusion and "Sam" gripped her arm tightly.

  
"Ah, Sam, you're hurting me, please st- AAAAAAAAHHHH"

  
He dug his hands into her chest, ripping through her shirt and her flesh, pulling out her intestines, that inhuman smile stretched across his face the entire time. Her screams echoed in my ears. Ted looked like he wanted to run and help her, but I grabbed his arm to hold him back. He stared at my hand got a second and then turned towards the back room.

  
"There's a back exit... We need to leave now."

  
I didn't even think to ask about where we were going. I don't think he would have had an answer.

  
"Ted, My house is sort of like a survival bunker, and its only about a two hour walk from here if we take a few back roads to ensure we don't come across any unwanted visitors."

  
He just nodded blankly. I knew he was thinking about Charlotte. They seemed to be pretty close. I decided not to bother him with it right now, and focused on finding my way back home in the safest way possible. We walked for a while, in silence.

  
"So... have you... always lived here? In Hatchetfield?"

  
I was grasping at straws, trying to find anything to talk about. But he didn't say anything in response, just simply nodded.

  
"Silence, huh? Who's the mime now?"

  
He cracked a smile and looked like he was about to share a witty comeback when suddenly, our attention was drawn elsewhere. A voice, from around the corner, singing. In a split second decision, I pulled us into the closest alleyway. It was much too crowded for two fully grown men. Our faces were only about four inches away from each other. My hand was still on his arm from when I had grabbed him a second ago and there wasn't enough room to adjust. His hands were on either side of me, palm pressed to the wall for support.

  
I felt as his chest rose and fell shallowly, against mine. Staying as quiet as possible, I looked into his eyes. As the voice got closer, his eyes widened in recognition. All of the color drained from his face. I tightened my grip on his bicep for a second. It was Charlotte... She must have followed us out the back. He squeezed his eyes tightly. I leaned forward a tiny bit and rested my forehead against his. One of his hands fell to my side and grabbed a handful of my sweater, squeezing it tightly until Charlotte seemed to give up.

  
The voice had passed, but neither of us moved. It was so quiet, I could hear our hearts pounding, his hot breath exhaling against my neck. His hand relaxed, but stayed placed on my waist. I couldn't tell if my face was burning from a lack of oxygen or from my uncontrollable blushing. Probably a mix of both.

  
I don't know how long we stayed there, but we needed to keep going. Ted shuffled his way out first. I heard a loud crack and a cry from Ted. I took a step out of the alley and saw Ted lying on the ground, clutching his leg, and Charlotte holding a pipe standing over him. Quickly, I shot her in the head. Maybe it was insensitive, maybe I should have felt bad, but she was already gone. Her blood wasn't even red. It was that same blue that had been all over Sam... I pulled out a bag and scraped some of the blue goo off into it. I rushed over to Ted. His leg looked pretty bad.

  
"Do you think you can walk?"

  
He pushed away my hand.

 

"Of course..."

  
He stood up, but as soon as he tried to put any weight on his leg, he cried out in pain and grabbed for my shoulder to support himself. I sighed. Slipping one arm under his, across his back, and the other one tucked under his knees,I scooped him up, bridal style.

  
"Woah there Professor..."

  
"it's fine. My house isn't too far from here. Once we get there,I can take a better look at your leg."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	3. Chapter three

When we reached my house, I had to manually put the code into the front gate. Ted wanted to try and walk again, but after a second, got right back into my arms.

  
"Alexa, close the gates!"

  
Oh, how I missed that.

  
I brought Ted to my lab and sat him down on a table. There was a red stain starting to show through the leg of his pants. I grabbed my scissors and started cutting.

  
"Hey!"

  
"Would you rather take your pants completely off?"

  
His face burned bright red as he turned his face away from me. There was a gash, but it didn't look like the bone was broken. Maybe a minor fracture.

  
"You're going to have to stay off of this leg for a while, let it heal on its own. Luckily, you've got nowhere to go."

  
I helped him up, making sure he didn't put any pressure on his leg. We hobbled over to my living area, and I sat him down on a couch.

"now, if you could just wait here, I think I might have an old pair of crutches in a back room somewhere."

  
He hardly seemed to register my words at all. His eyes were clouded over, his face still pale. I imagine his somber mood had something to do with Charlotte, perhaps I should ask him about it later...

  
I made my way down a long hallway, to a room I currently used for storage. I hadn't been in here for years, maybe. As if in a trance, I walked over to the first stack of boxes I saw. They were filled with books, old books I hadn't read since high school. Another box had a thick winter coat, which hadn't been used since I moved to Hatchetfield. Hangars, a blanket, a suitcase, an old, broken microscope. The crutches! As I went to grab them, I saw a box with the word Memories written across the top.  
Inside was a folded letterman jacket, a football in desperate need of refilling, and a scrapbook. It was filled with pictures of-

  
"Oh..."

  
I covered my mouth, and felt tears begin to fall. My old college friends. I flipped through the pages as my head was flooded with memories. The summer after our first year, Greg, Steve, Stu, Mark, Leighton, Chad, and I, all standing with our arms around each others' shoulders. I almost didn't recognize myself. My hair used to be dark brown with a gentle curl, and the bags under my eyes were nowhere near as defined back then. We all looked so bright, so hopeful.

  
Flipping to the last page, a similar picture taken at graduation. But in this one, it was just Mark, Chad and me, though Leighton might have been taking the picture. My hair had started to turn gray, and the circles under my eyes were a lot closer to present. Mark and I were smiling, but they were tired smiles. Chad wasn't even looking at the camera, he was looking down at a baseball cap he held in his hands. The cap that Steve always used to wear... Senior year, that was the year Greg, Steve, and Stu were killed in a car crash. I closed the book and clutched it tightly to my chest.

  
"Professor?"

  
I looked up to see Ted standing in the doorway. Quickly, I turned my face away from him.

  
"You should be r-resting."

  
"Well, you were taking a long time and I was extra careful not to use my leg."

  
I tried to take a deep breath, to calm myself, but the air got caught in my throat.

  
"Are you.. crying?"

  
I stood up and grabbed the crutches, wiping my face with my sleeve.

  
"No. Here are your crutches."

  
I shoved them into his arms as I hastily exited the room.  
I had made my way to my room and laid crying in the fetal position for what felt like hours, when I heard a splash followed by a much louder crash from downstairs.  
I ran down the stairs to see Ted lying on the ground.

  
"What did you do?"

  
"I uh... found your bar, hope you don't mind, spilled something and then... slipped in it... No big deal."

  
I helped him up and over to the couch. I probably should have cleaned up the alcohol, but I was too tired to do that right now. I sat down on the couch next to Ted, and put my head in my hands.

  
Suddenly, I felt a warm hand on my back. Startled, I looked at Ted, causing him to pull back his hand.

  
"Sorry Professor, you just seem real upset... Didn't really want to pry..."

  
I sighed and rubbed my temples.  
  


"No, Ted, it's fine... I just... got distracted. I came across some photos of old friends, and... Its been a long day."

  
"Tell me about it..."

  
He mumbled, and I remembered what had happened this morning. I got up, grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the kitchen, and returned to the couch. I sat so that I was facing towards him, with one leg pulled up on the couch. I took a mouthful of the drink and then held it out to Ted. Without looking at it, he grabbed it and brought it to his lips. I watched as he seemed to be lost in thought. Suddenly he started chugging from the bottle, faster than anyone should.

  
"Woah, slow down there, buddy."

  
I pulled the bottle away from the man's mouth.

  
"Hardly left any for me."

  
I joked. I glanced at the bottle, almost empty, thinking about the alcohol spilled over on the floor.

  
"How much have you had to drink today?"

  
He thought hard.

  
"Ummmmmm, heh, I don't really, uhh, know professor. Not a lot..."

  
He was lying, and staring not so secretly at a bottle he had previously emptied, over on the other couch. I sighed.

  
"... Not enough..."

  
My shoulders dropped at his words.

  
"Hey, I'm really sorry about Charlotte."

  
The name flashed across his face, dark, mournful.

  
"I didn't know her very well, but you really seemed to be affected by-"

  
"All I did was mess around with her a little to distract her from her piece of crap husband... She didn't care about me... And yesterday, when I watched him-...in some sick way, I was happy for them, all she wanted was him."

  
He angrily spat out the words, as if they had left a bad taste in his mouth. I put my hand on his shoulder this time, but he leaned towards me, resting his head on my chest.

  
I knew I wasn't much taller than Ted, but his body in this moment felt so small, so tired, as he struggled to contain himself. I gently rubbed my hand in circles on his back, until his shaky breathing eventually calmed down. Slowly, hesitantly, I leaned back onto the couch. He began to pull away, I felt silly for thinking he w- Oh, he was just adjusting himself. One of his arms made its way underneath my back, his head rested over my heart. I knew this probably meant nothing to him, he was drunk and overcome by grief at the loss of Charlotte... but I let myself enjoy it, the warmth of another human being. I gently stroked his soft hair until I heard him begin to snore. I followed him, soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	4. Chapter 4

When I woke up, he was still fast asleep. Lucky for me, he didn't drool. I managed to inch my way out from underneath him without waking him up, and went upstairs to change.

I reached for another black turtleneck. But, then I saw a shirt I hadn't worn in a long time, sticking out from behind a different sweater. It was a simple black t shirt with a high v-neck, one that I wore almost everyday in college before I switched to turtlenecks. I put it on. It still fit. I threw on an old pair of sweatpants. Wow, if only my hair weren't so gray...

I made my way down to the kitchen and brewed a pot of coffee, hopefully Ted didn't mind it black, I personally never cared for creamer, and never bought any. I held the mug in both hands and held it up to my face, feeling the steam.

"Ugh... My head is pounding."

Ted walked in with his crutches, rubbing his eyes sleepily. I almost choked on my coffee, he was so cute...keep it together, Henry.

"I made coffee, it would be good for your hangover..."

He nodded in agreement and poured some into a mug. He sat down across from me and took a long drink of his coffee. While trying to drink my own coffee, I watched as he combed his fingers through his mane of hair. I almost choked on my coffee a second time, this time more visibly. As I gasped for air, he reached to pat my back, a look of worry growing on his face.

"Ah, it... went down the wrong pipe, simply."

He nodded, and pulled his arm back, accidentally bumping his coffee mug with his elbow. It spilled all over him. He jumped up, cursing, and I grabbed a towel and threw it to him.

"I'll go get you a change of clothes..."

I bolted upstairs and into my room. I grabbed him a random t shirt and a pair of old jeans that looked like they might fit him. When I got back down to the kitchen, I tossed him the clothes.

"I guess neither of us can be trusted with coffee, huh."

I laughed, and almost choked on that too. Ted pulled off his shirt, revealing some surprisingly toned abs. Gosh, why was I so gay? I wanted to stop staring before he noticed, but I'm pretty sure he definitely saw my jaw when it hit the floor... Hey, I never said I was good with subtlety.

After cleaning everything up, I took Ted's clothes and tossed them into my laundry machine in the way to my lab. I pulled the bag out of a temperature regulated storage container and scraped some of the blue goo onto a microscope slide. It was... like nothing I had ever seen before...

It turns out, Ted's leg wasn't as bad as I had thought at all. It was almost completely healed after about a week. But as he got better, I fear that I had been getting worse. I've been running test after test after test, trying anything and everything just to figure out where to start with this... this...I don't even know what it is. I haven't slept in two days, I can't even remember the last time I ate real food or even left my lab, and I've been driving myself crazy over this blue shit, and driving myself crazy over Ted...

Sometimes I'll look up and see him standing at the doorway, just watching me, a few times he came in with food that I forgot about as soon as he left, one time I passed out at my lab table and when I woke up, there was a blanket over my shoulders. I couldn't read him at all. But as long as I stayed in my lab, I didn't have to worry about awkward encounters.

That night, we had the worst thunderstorm I've seen in a while. I've never had a problem with thunderstorms before. Maybe it's because it reminded me of the night the meteor crashed, but I couldn't work, and I definitely couldn't sleep. I walked around, aimlessly, just to pass the time. I ended up in my living room, where I lit a fire in the fire place. I laid out on the couch, hands folded over my stomach, my eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. Suddenly I heard Ted walk in.

"Can't sleep either?"

He shook his head.

"Figured I'd come down here and get a drink, calm my nerves. He shuffled over to the couch.

"You gonna make room for me or what?"

I thought about it for a moment and with a mischievous smile, said

"make me."

He grabbed my shoulders to pull me off the couch, but then I rolled off the side instead, taking him down with me. The momentum of his fall and my roll carried us away from the couch and towards the fireplace. When we landed, he was on his hands and knees, over my body, stretched out beneath him, his laughing face just inches from mine. But Ted's playful smile quickly turned to a look of vulnerability as we both realized the compromising position we were in. I so badly wanted him to lean down and kiss me, in front of the roaring fire. My eyes searched his for any indication of his next actions. Suddenly, thunder crashed loudly outside, startling us both. He got up and walked over to the couch.

"that wasn't so hard now was it."

I stayed there on the ground. I could feel the heat from the fire, but inside, I felt cold. Ted fell asleep on the couch, but I put the fire out and laid back on the floor for the rest of my sleepless night. I never should have left my lab.

Around 5:00 a.m., I decided I should take a shower. Looking at myself in the mirror above my sink, that was a mistake. The dark circles under my bloodshot eyes were darker than ever, my lips were chapped and practically chewed raw, even my cheeks were sunken in to my face. What a mess. But as soon as the water hit my face, I felt better. The hot water was relaxing, the steam was soothing. Hopping out of the shower, I pulled some sweatpants on, and I barely made it to my room before passing out on my bed.

The sunlight streaming in through my window woke me, much to my dismay. I was so sore, and sleeping in my own bed for the first time in a week felt so good. I groaned as I turned myself over and pulled a pillow over my head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	5. Chapter five

I had already made the decision not to leave my bed at all that day when I smelled something amazing coming from downstairs. I followed my nose to the kitchen. Ted was standing at the stove, his back to me.

"What is that?"

"Oh, nothing much, just scrambled eggs, cheese, some lunch meat that looked like ham, and random seasoning."

My stomach growled at the thought of food, and Ted chuckled. When he turned around with the plates, his face turned bright red.

"You, uh... Did you forget something?"

I looked down. I was wearing my gray sweatpants, but I hadn't put on a shirt.

"This is the second time one of us has been shirtless at breakfast."

And part of me hoped it wouldn't be the last.

"Sorry... I'll go put on a shirt."

I grabbed my black turtleneck, but by the time I got back downstairs, the kitchen was empty, save for a plate of eggs still sitting out for me.

Back to business, I sat down in my lab. As I stared at my pages of notes, unfinished calculations, numbers swimming around my head, my pounding head, I picked up a pen with my shaking hand, trying to connect the dots, any dots. Flipping through scans, comparing this blue shit to every known bacteria, micro virus, parasite, nothing, nothing, nothing. Inconclusive data, no connections to anywhere, anything, this was something completely new, something I couldn't work with. The furthest I've gotten was when I set it upon some dead skin cells, but once it had rearranged the genetic makeup, I reached the road block. No way to reverse it, no way to tell how it even did it in the first place. Nothing made any sense. I slammed my head down on my desk, biting my lip until I tasted blood. A pair of strong hands pulled me away from my desk.

"Professor?"

I could barely hear over the blood pounding in my ears.

"Hidgens!"

His hands gripped my shoulders tighter, shaking me gently.

"Henry! What's going on?!"

He wrapped his arms around my shaking body. His shirt was wet... No, that was from my face. I didn't even know I was crying, I couldn't feel any tears on my face. My knees buckled and I fell to the ground. He sat down in front of me.

"I think you need to take a break from this...science stuff. For a couple days maybe... I'm worried about you."

I hugged my knees to my chest. Eventually, I calmed myself down, and shakily stood back up. Leaning back over my work, Ted put his hand on my shoulder.

"Henry, I'm serious..."

I shook his hand off and turned to face him.

His eyes stared into mine, searching, scared. It reminded me of the look in his eyes when he saw Charlotte with Sam, that day we first met. I put my hands on his shoulders, and in an act of pure instinct, kissed him. Only for a second. A guilty feeling filled my stomach.

"I'm s-sorry, somethi-"

Before I could even finish my sentence, he grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me into a passionate kiss. After getting over the initial shock, I put my hands on his hips, eventually finding my way under the soft fabric of his- my t shirt. I could feel the muscles in his back tightening as he pulled me closer. He backed me up against one of my lab tables and moved one hand from my neck to my back to support me, deepening our kiss, almost grinding against me. I never wanted this moment to e-

CRASH

We accidentally pushed a beaker on to the ground, where it shattered. As we separated, he shoved his hands into his pockets, visibly flustered. I grabbed my broom and started sweeping the glass into a dustpan. He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he hurried out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	6. Chapter six

I needed to clear my head. Of course I wanted to talk to Ted about what just happened, but I didn't feel like chasing him down. Looking back through my research, I suddenly got an idea. Completely crazy, but it just might work. I had already tested what the blue shit did to dead skin cells, but... What if I had... An infected person, to study. Live samples. I knew it could be a fruitless effort, but at this point,I didn't know what else to do. I grabbed a syringe, if I found one and caught it off guard, I could paralyze it. I realized then that I should probably let Ted know what was going on. So I left a quick note, taped to the wall next to the door.

"Ted- I've headed out for research purposes. Be back within 24 hours. If I'm not, don't come looking for me. Henry"

I grabbed my gun and walked out the front door.

Last time I had left, there seemed to be a large concentration of people downtown, so that wouldn't be a good place right now. Maybe the highschool, that wasn't very close to downtown...

As I walked through back alleyways, avoiding open spaces, my mind wandered back to Ted. He had kissed me. More than just a quick peck on the cheek...but why? Had he been drunk? No, he had seemed to be of sound mind. Was it to torture me? A punishment, some sort of twisted game Ted was playing? No, he definitely didn't seem psychopathic...

After weighing all of the possibilities, I had decided it must have been an act of pity, turned into a chance for physical contact, to fill a need that would have been filled by Charlotte, before she died...

When I arrived, the place looked deserted, but I knew that meant nothing. I walked through the halls, lined with tan colored lockers.

Thump

What was that?

Thump

I followed the sound, echoing through the halls, getting louder as I moved towards the back of the school. I turned a corner, and saw someone, male, highschool age most likely. He was pounding on a locked door, blue goo dripping from his busted knuckles. Slowly, I snuck up behind him, and stabbed my syringe into his neck. I caught him as he collapsed, and pulling him away from the door, I got a better look at his face. He wore glasses, and more blue goo stained around his mouth, dripping onto his shirt and...suspenders? Weird outfit for a highschooler... From inside the room, I thought I heard whispering. Carefully I unlocked the door, gun at the ready. Sitting inside, I saw a man, arms wrapped protectively around another highschooler, female. At the back of the room, there were two bodies in a pile, blue goo splattered over them. I pointed my gun at the people. The girl looked even more scared than before, the man spoke up.

"Sir, please don't shoot, we're not infected, my name is Bill, this is my daughter Alice, we've been trapped in here for over a week..."

Bill... That's the man Charlotte had mentioned, but that was a while ago...

"How have you two survived this long?"

He pointed to a vending machine in the corner of the room. The front was smashed open. I lowered my gun.

"Are either of you hurt?"

"I scraped myself on some broken glass a while ago..."

He raised his arm. Below his elbow, there was a cut, about three inches long, not too deep. The dried blood around it was red.

"And what about them?"

I pointed my gun towards the bodies in the corner.

"Those girls were infected, when I found Alice, they had cornered her in this room. I shot them, but then the one out there showed up and my gun didn't have any bullets left..."

These people needed help...

"You two should come with me. I've got a house on the edge of town, built like a bunker. Plenty of security and food... And your coworker, Ted."

The girl, Alice, looked on the verge of tears, while Bill got up and shook my hand.

"Thank you so much... I don't think I got your name?"

"You can call me Professor Hidgens."

I held the door open as he walked out, and as Alice went to follow him, she hugged me, very tightly, whispering.

"Thank you so much."

I didn't know how to respond, so I patted her shoulder.

"It's... No problem."

Walking out into the hall, I saw the boy's unconscious, but still very infected, body.

"Hey Bill... This is going to sound weird but... Could you help me carry this boy?"

He looked at me like I was crazy, which I had expected.

"I've been trying to find a cure for this... whatever it is... And I think a living test subject would be very helpful..."

He still looked unsure but didn't question me any further.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	7. Chapter seven

On the way back, I chatted with Bill, Alice walking quietly a few feet back.

"So what was your daughter doing at the school during the zombie apocalypse?"

"Oh... Well, she was supposed to be heading over to her mother's house, in Clivesdale, but she got off of the bus to look for her girlfriend, Deb. But Deb was infected when she found her, so she hid in the Choir room..."

Deb- must have been one of the bodies... That might explain why Alice is so quiet.

I looked back at her, and noticed she was holding a yellow beanie... The look on her face bore a striking resemblance to the look on Chad's face, holding Steve's hat, in that one picture. Poor thing... so young, having to go through all of this, seeing death everywhere she looked... And the boy in my arms, infected, never able to experience so many things... Unless I could find a cure.

When we reached my house, it was dark outside, maybe around 11:00 pm. I handed the boy to Bill and unlocked the door.

"Where were you?!"

Ted was sitting on the arm of the couch, his hair was a mess.

"Didn't you see my note?"

I looked at the wall... no note...oh. It had fallen to the floor. Stupid cheap post-it notes. I picked it up and handed it to him. He read it, and then finally moved out of the way so that I could enter my house. His jaw dropped when Bill and Alice walked in. I took the boy from Bill, who looked surprised when Ted tackled him in a hug.

"Ugh, get a room..."

Alice joked, smiling and rolling her eyes.

"Alice! Wow, I can't even remember the last time I saw you, you've gotten so tall!"

"Gosh, you sound like my grandma!"

Ted turned towards me, when he finally noticed the body.

"What the.... Hey... I've seen this kid, I think- yeah. I used to see this guy at Beanie's all the time...real obnoxious kid...'oh I've got low blood sugar, I'm so special.'"

He said in a mocking voice. Bill looked upset and Alice looked shocked.

"Oh right, sorry. He's infected... That's too bad, nice kid."

He stared at the ground as the awkward silence continued.

"Well... I should probably get this boy restrained, he'll wake up within-" I glanced at my watch "I'd say 5-10 hours, but, just to be safe."

Back in my lab, I pulled out a chair and some heavy duty zip ties. I sat the boy up in the chair and started binding his limbs, so that he wouldn't be able to break free.

"You sure are good with those zip ties, Professor."

I didn't even have to look to know that Ted was standing, leaning against the doorframe, probably with some goofy grin on his face.

"Bill and Alice went upstairs. Since you've only got one spare bed and the air mattress I was using, I volunteered to sleep on the couch downstairs."

I grabbed a roll of duct tape.

"Hey Professor, why do you have an extra bed? You don't seem like the type of person to have friends over."

An old student of mine used to come over here sometimes, to escape her neglectful parents... But he didn't need to know that.

I ripped a piece of tape off and covered the boy's mouth, to prevent any singing to attract any other nearby infected.

"Henry?"

I slammed the duct tape down on the table and quickly walked towards the door, but Ted put his arm out, blocking me from leaving. I turned to him and stared into his eyes. I'm not even sure why I'm mad at him, why I'm ignoring him, but I am. I watch as his eyes flick across my face. Worry-confusion-guilt-defeat, I can read his face like a book. He lowers his arm and I walk upstairs to my room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Connected greatly appreciated  
> :)


	8. Chapter eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there's descriptions of death in this, idk if they're intense enough to really need a warning, but I figured, just in case.

I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling for hours. I heard Bill and Ted talking downstairs. Alice had locked herself in the spare bedroom, next to mine, and hadn't stopped crying since. I felt bad. Eventually, Bill came up and asked her to come down for a really late dinner, and I guess the thought of non-vending machine food was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I didn't join them. From my bed, I listened to their distant mumbling and occasional laughter, until I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up around 6:00 am, starving. I don't think I had eaten anything at all yesterday. When I got downstairs, I saw Ted lying on the couch... Right, he said he'd be sleeping there from now on. I felt bad about last night, getting so angry at him for no reason, but I couldn't apologize now... Or- why not? Sure he wouldn't hear me but...

"Ted, I'm really sorry, about yesterday, I shouldn't have treated you like that. All you did was, ask a few questions, and I stormed out on you for no reason. I guess... I guess I just was upset because..." Why was I upset?-"I feel like I've been getting mixed signals, or something, and then you... you kissed me, an-and then you just ran out and, then I met Bill and Alice, and Alice's girlfriend died, and I... I just thought about you, but then I felt kinda guilty because I know you didn't kiss me because you like me, but then when I got back you were so friendly, and I-I guess I just wanted you to make up your mind but, it's fine."

I was out of breath. That... Felt good, getting everything off my chest, more than I thought I needed to. It still hurt to see him on the couch and not being able to join him, but I would just have to deal with that.

I walked into the kitchen and made a bowl of oatmeal. Suddenly, I heard footsteps, coming down the stairs. A moment later, Alice peeked her head around the corner. Her eyes were still red and puffy.

"Were you talking to someone?"

"... Just myself. Can't sleep?"

She shook her head, and I patted the seat next to me.

"Care for some oatmeal?"

She shook her head once more.

"Care to talk about D-.. Anything?"

Her eyes began to water, I knew I shouldn't have pushed...

"I just...*sniff*...miss her so much... Once m-mom left dad and moved to Clivesdale, I didn't get to s-see her as much, and, I know dad didn't l-like her...*sniff*...but if... he never got to know her and... n-now she's..."

She broke down into silent sobs. I let her cry, let her get it all out. When she finished, I began to speak.

"When I was in college, I didn't know anyone, and I wasn't good at meeting people. But one day, I was outside studying and these guys came up to me and said they needed one more person for their game. Those boys became my closest friends... some of them more... But senior year, three of them went out one night, said they'd be right back, instead, we got a call from the hospital."

Reliving that night was painful. I could hear my voice shaking as I continued.

"A truck driver wasn't paying attention, slammed into the side of their car, flipping it. Greg died that night in the hospital, Stu was paralyzed from the waist down until he died two days later, and Steve...his airbag never went off... He was dead before they pulled him from the car. After that, none of us were the same. After about a week, Chad stopped talking all together, and Leighton rarely left the house. Of course, we still hung out, Mark made sure of it. But after we graduated, we went our separate ways... Haven't heard from them since."

I'm not sure why I told her all of that, but it did feel nice to sit with someone who understood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	9. Chapter nine

We mostly sat in silence after that, but Alice kept yawning, so I shooed her off to bed. I put my oatmeal bowl in the sink, and sat back down at the table, resting my eyes for a second.

When I opened them, the sun was up. Must have fallen asleep. I rubbed my face into my arms, folded in front of me. Footsteps... Ted's. I looked up. He was wearing his button up shirt, with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows. I would have been sad he wasn't wearing my shirt if that wasn't so freaking hot. He gave me a quick half smile before refilling his coffee cup.

He started walking over to the table so I tried to sit up. But after sleeping hunched over, a searing pain shot through my back as a muscle began to spasm, resulting in me possibly accidentally making a noise, very similar to a moan. He stopped.

"...You okay?"

My jaw clenched from pain and embarrassment, I nodded.

"Just got a bad knot in my back from sleeping at the table all night."

He sat his cup down and moved behind me.

"Where at?"

"What?"

"I don't know, I went out with a masseuse once, she taught me some of her tricks."

"Oh... It's right below my left shoulder."

His fingers gently started prodding my back, feeling around the muscle. When he found it, he began kneading with the heel of his hand. It hurt for a second, but whatever he was doing was working.

It felt so good.

"How's that."

"It's great, thanks."

"No problem."

He grabbed his coffee and walked out.

I slammed my forehead down on the table and let out a guttural yell. Why was he so frustrating? I pushed out my chair and started heading to my lab. Alice was out in the hall, looking confused and a little frightened, most likely because of the loud grunt she had heard from the kitchen. I quickly put on a fake smile and rushed into the lab, closing the door behind me.

This was better. Science had answers, used reason, followed patterns. Science didn't kiss you and then act like it never happened.

The boy was sitting in the chair, conscious, but staring at the wall. Time to get to work.

After about an hour, I heard a knock on my door.

"It's unlocked."

Ted walked in, hands in his pockets, and walked over to my seat, taking a wide arc around the boy.

"Any progress with him yet?"

"Well, I took the tape off for a second but he wouldn't tell me anything about himself, just kept singing. Wouldn't even give me his name."

"That's dumb."

"Very."

"Alice suggested calling him Blue, y'know, because of the blue shit."

"That seems appropriate. I guess I do prefer a name, over calling him 'The Boy'..."

"Mhmm. Whatcha workin on now?"

"Well, I took a blood sample. Analyzing it right now, it has very low concentration of actual red blood cells, it's mostly composed of the mystery goo."

"Any way to get it out?"

"I'm...not sure. See, usually when a strange and possibly dangerous substance is introduced to the bloodstream, the immune system would kill it as soon as possible. But for some reason, the body doesn't notice this stuff in time... My theory is that the goo travels very quickly, and once it latches into the brain, it disables the part of the nervous system that would -"

I could tell I was losing him, his face scrunched up as he tried to follow what I was saying. Luckily, Blue began trying to escape his chair, giving me a reason to abandon my very boring, scientific ramblings. I grabbed another syringe and carefully stabbed it into Blue's neck, pacifying him. I needed a break from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	10. Chapter ten

Walking into the kitchen, I saw Bill seated at the table, reading a book from one of the boxes I had dragged from the back room. He closed his book and smiled at me as I sat next to him with a cup of coffee.

"A bit late for coffee, isn't it?"

I looked at my watch. It was almost 6:00 pm. I shrugged and took a sip.

"Professor Hidgens, I just want to thank you again for helping Alice and me out like this, I-"

"It's really no problem. I wouldn't leave anyone out there to fend for themselves."

After a moment of silence, he chuckled to himself. I raised one eyebrow in confusion.

"At the very beginning of all this, I thought the most upsetting thing was that I couldn't take my daughter to see Mama Mia. Now, you go outside and everywhere you look there's someone trying to turn you into a zombie."

"Mama Mia?"

"Yeah, my ex wife took Alice to see Hamilton, so I thought...heh, I thought I could be just as cool by taking her to a small production of Mama Mia..."

He stared at the table.

"Personally, I'd rather see Mama Mia over Hamilton any day."

He smiled a little at my lame attempt to make him feel better. Take two, here we go.

"I've obviously never been a father or a daughter, so maybe I have no right to say this, but I'm sure Alice would have at least appreciated the effort you put into spending time with her... She seems to respect you, which shows that she cares about your opinion of her... And Mama Mia is such a great musical..."

"Yeah... I guess..."

I sat and sipped my coffee, and Bill turned back to his book. Eventually Alice walked in. I stood up to leave, smiling as I passed her. I figured I should let them have some time alone to talk. As I walked out of the kitchen I noticed that the door to my back room was open... I walked up to it and peeked inside. I froze. Ted was sitting on the floor, flipping through something. Oh no, had he found my scrapbook? My stomach dropped. Before I could flee the scene, he turned his head. He had a huge, goofy, adorable smile.

"I didn't know you wrote a musical!"

I breathed a sigh of relief, immediately followed by a new panic. Ted jumped up, waving a thick stack of papers in his hand. I had almost forgotten about that. It wasn't really a musical... Just a rough manuscript, a few outlines for songs, basic character designs... I had started working on it about ten years ago, I would pick it up and work out a scene or two whenever I needed a break from biology. But then it got thrown in here, never to be seen again, until...

"I mean, I'm not a very big fan of musicals, but this is great stuff Professor!"

He looked so happy, I couldn't help but smile. Sometimes I do still miss my days in musical theatre, singing until my lungs burned, dancing until I couldn't stand, becoming an entirely new person. It was so freeing. He began scanning through the pages again, eyes flicking over the words faster than I'd ever seen.

"Here, sing this part!"

He thrusted the script into my arms, pointing at the beginning of a song. Ah... This was supposed to be the title number... Even though it had been years since I had written it, the notes came to me just as easily now as they had back then.

"Business calls,

I'm up to my ass in shit,

*nod nod nod*

What is this business?

Markets are crashing,

and I'm at the edge of my wits,

I just can't take it,

When all I want to do,

Is spend the day with Ste-"

Steve...I thought I had changed their names... I had used their names in the original version, but it was too hard, seeing them all together, even though it was about them... I looked up, and Ted looked confused.

"This-this is an old version of the song... Not the final lyrics..."

"Oh, well I think it's great with all those names."

"It... was great... with them..."

I quickly looked away. I saw little drops of water on the pages below me. Putting my hand up to my face, I realized I had been crying. I sat the papers down and ran out of the room. The closest room was my lab, so I went there and closed the door behind me. Pressing my forehead against the cool wood, I took a few deep breaths. Blue started humming from behind me, so I grabbed yet another syringe. After silencing him, I sat on my stool, and stared at Blue.

"You're lucky. You've got a little blue virus thing in your brain telling you what to do. No one is counting on you to save them. You don't have to remember anyone, you're just an empty husk."

He stared back blankly. I hadn't been expecting a response. I turned back to my notes. I wanted to keep working, but despite the many cups of coffee I had drank, my head kept dropping, my eyelids were too heavy to keep open. I eventually gave in, unable to fight back sleep anymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	11. Chapter eleven

I was walking down the streets of Hatchetfield, but everything looked… off. And everything was dead silent, I could barely hear my own footsteps. The sun must have been rising, as the night sky slowly got lighter. But it didn’t stop. The sky was painfully bright, brighter than it ever should be, as if the sun was less than a mile away, despite the cold breeze blowing in my face. I shielded my eyes and heard a whisper from a nearby building.

“Henry…”

I followed the sound, blindly, until I felt a door. The sky flashed a glowing blue seconds before I got the door closed. It took my eyes a  to adjust. Suddenly, I was somewhere else. Looking around, I recognized these walls almost immediately. Not surprising, considering I had lived here for over three years. I stood inside the front door of that beat up old house at the edge of college campus, a normal amount of sunlight breaking through the cheap curtains we had hung up over the front window.

I hadn’t even thought about this place since I had left, close to over thirty years ago, but it looked exactly how it had the first time I had seen it. Slowly, reverently, I walked up the staircase, muscle memory causing me to skip the fourth step. That one had always been creaky. I heard my name, whispered again, from down the hall. Although determined to find the voice, I got distracted. I saw a familiar end-table, up against the wall. On top sat a pedestal, sloppily made, but Stu had refused to let us replace it. It held an old football, and a smile grew on my face as I thought about all of the fun times we had had with this old thing. I lifted my arm, gingerly placing my hand on top of it. College felt like ages ago. Continuing down the narrow hallway, I passed by the large bedroom that Stu, Chad, and Steve had shared, and the slightly smaller bedroom that Leighton would have shared with Greg, if he hadn’t insisted on sleeping downstairs on the pull-out couch. I continued towards the room that I had shared with Mark. But, again, I ended up somewhere unexpected. This time, I was in my lab. Someone was standing on the other side of the room. Ted? I walked over to him.

“Henry…”

The whisper came from him, but it wasn’t his voice, and his lips hadn’t moved.

“Ted? What’s going on?”

He didn’t answer. His eyes bore through mine, as if I wasn’t there, two feet away from him.

“Ted, say something, please.”

Again, no response. I grabbed his arms, squeezing them tightly, trying to pull him back, back to me. But it was as if I was invisible. I kept saying his name, louder and louder, hoping for something, anything. His face remained still, emotionless, even as my words became more and more desperate. My throat began to tighten, my spit thick. All I wanted was an answer, What was happening, What wa-

My stool rattled as I sat up, shaking, unable to catch my breath. My heart was pounding violently, I was drenched in sweat, freezing cold. I looked up and saw a dark figure standing over me. I panicked and tried to push myself away, but I nearly fell off of my stool in the process.

“Hey, hey, it’s just me Professor.”

Ted was standing next to me, hand on my shoulder, steadying me. Even in the dark, I could see that his face was pale, his eyes open wide, eyebrows pushed together, mouth slightly agape. He looked shaken, like he had seen a ghost. I realized, however, that I probably looked like a ghost.

“What’s up? Are you okay? You kept yelling my name.”

“Oh, sorry for waking you, it was just a nightmare, I think.”

My head was still spinning…

“Geez, am I that scary?”

He let out a nervous chuckle, trying to lighten the mood. I managed a weak smile, hoping he would see I was fine and leave me alone. A few seconds later he walked away, yawning. Using the counter to push myself up from my stool, I shuffled upstairs and into my own bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	12. Chapter twelve

I really needed to get my sleep schedule back on track. It was almost 1:00 pm when I finally got out of bed. Making my way downstairs, I almost ran into Ted on his way out of the kitchen. He offered me a sympathetic smile and hurried away. Great. He thinks I'm pathetic, a fully grown man having nightmares. I pushed my hair out of my eyes and, after standing in the middle of the kitchen for about a minute, walked back up to my room. I wasn't hungry for breakfast (or lunch, since it was past noon) and I didn't feel like staring at Blue for another day. So, I slept. Until someone knocked on my door.  
"Hello?"  
The knob turned. It was just Alice.  
"Hey Professor, Ted made dinner and wanted to know if you'd eat with us?"  
Couldn't even ask me himself.  
"Sure. I'll be there in a minute or two."  
She nodded and left, closing the door behind her. I swung my legs over the side of my bed and changed into some clothes that I hadn't worn for the past two days.

Everyone was already seated when I showed up. There was an open chair next to Ted. Great. Well, it would've been great if we both weren't so tall. Our knees kept bumping, eventually leading us both to just giving up, resting our knees against each others. After a few minutes, Alice looked around the table.  
"I think this is the first time we've all eaten together! Its like a nice family dinner."  
Bill chuckled at that.  
"I can't remember the last time I ever ate with other people."  
Oh gosh Henry, that sounded so depressing. Alice noticed the tension and tried to move on.  
"It's just me, my dad, my... bi uncle, and my gay grandpa."  
Ted's head snapped in her direction. I pretended to look offended.  
"Hey, I'm not that old!"  
She rolled her eyes.  
"Fine. Me, my dad, and my two gay uncles."  
Everyone smiling, we continued to eat. It took me longer than I care to admit for her words to register. Ted was bi? I looked up at her and mouthed "Bi?". She nodded slowly, definitely confused. This was great!Then I realized that Ted was staring at me.  
"What?"  
He nudged my leg, the one touching his, the one that was bouncing up and down in excitement. I apologized and tried to hold my heel down on the ground.

After dinner, Bill suggested I don't go back to my lab, maybe hang out with them that night. After much consideration, I decided to join them. We sat in my living room and talked. I sat in my armchair, with my legs up over the side, Alice and Bill sat on the couch to my left, and Ted sat on the floor in front of me. Ted had a bottle of whiskey next to him, Bill and Alice both had Shirley Temples, which Ted had made fun of countless times. Even I had already had more alcohol than I probably should have. But it was rather enjoyable so far.  
I couldn't stop giggling at everything Ted said, but he was just so funny. Everytime he looked over at me,I made sure to avoid eye contact, play it cool. At one point, Bill got so flustered that he threatened to kick Ted's head, and Ted ran with that.  
"I wanna see you kick above your waist. Show me that roundhouse, show me that sweeping crane kick that your kung fu master taught you."  
He accentuated his words with attempts of each karate move. I almost fell out of my chair, clutching my sides, laughing. Eventually Bill started laughing too, and soon the room was filled with thunderous laughter. It felt good to laugh. Until I started hiccuping.  
Ted accidentally knocked over his drink, spilling it all over the rug. He jumped up.  
"Oh shit. Sorry professor, I'll g-"  
"No, no, it's fine, I'll just *hic* get it myself."  
I picked up the bottle, stared at it for a second, then drank the remaining mouthful. Ted stood up, and tried to help me clean it up, but I brushed him off, avoiding any eye contact.

When I sat back down, everyone was silent. Alice looked at me with a strange look in her eye.  
“Hey Professor… Can I talk to you for a sec?”  
Could I say no? Probably not, that would be weird… I nodded and followed her into the kitchen. She quickly looked out into the hallway to make sure we hadn’t been followed.  
“So?”  
She stared at me, stared into my soul, in the way only a teenage girl could. I pretended to be confused, hoping she would give up. No such luck.  
“What’s up? You're acting different. Different than most humans should act."  
I could tell she knew, or at least had a pretty good idea of what was going on. My head was buzzing. This was not the best time to get into this... But was there even a good time? I sighed.  
"It's not my fault... I'm not acting weird, I-other people are *hic* being weird..."  
"Aha! I knew it. You like Ted!"  
Shit.  
I rubbed my face in my hands. I don't know why I thought I was successfully hiding it, everyone probably knew by now.  
"What do I do Alice?"  
She put her hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes.  
"I don't know, but I'm gonna help you."  
As much as I hated admitting it, this seventeen year old girl was my smartest option. It did feel nice to have someone know, like a weight was lifted off my chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	13. Chapter thirteen

When we re joined the other two, Bill had one eyebrow raised in question, Ted swiveled around from his spot on the floor.   
"So what were you two girls gossiping about, eh?"   
I scoffed jokingly and crossed my arms.   
"None of your business mister."   
He stuck his tongue out at me and- did he wink? I couldn't say for sure, and by the time I got back to my seat, the conversation had gone in an entirely new direction.    
  


After that, I can’t remember much, other than eventually making it up to my bed, since i woke up there the next morning. The pressure behind my eyes and the dryness in my mouth giving me a rough idea of how much I had to drink.

  
I was sitting in my lab, not really working on anything when Ted walked in. I couldn't actually focus because of my hangover, so I welcomed the distraction.   
"So, what's gonna happen if you don't cure this guy?"   
Oh great.   
"Well... I guess I could just knock him back out and take him out somewhere far from here to release him..."   
Catch and release. Treating this human being like a wild animal.   
"And... What happens if you do cure him?"   
"I-I really haven't thought about that at all... I guess we-I don't think I could just kick him out... He'd definitely stay here. I don't know where he'd sleep... But we'd figure something out."   
"Well, if one of you has to share the couch with me, I'd rather it be you."   
I raised my eyebrows in shock. He just laughed, not noticing my surprise, or the meaning of his words. Maybe I was just over analyzing it...   
  


This was useless. I couldn’t get anything done, my head pounding with thoughts of Blue and Ted. I walked out to the couch and sat down. I closed my eyes, hoping to take a nap, when Bill walked in and sat down next to me.   
"So...Ted huh?"   
"Alice told you? Or am I just that obvious?"   
"...Little bit of both- hey, I'm not judging."   
I turned to face him, giving him my attention.   
"You worked with Ted, right? What was he like- before all this?"   
He thought for a bit... Longer than I wanted.   
"Well, Ted wasn't... the best person before the meteor, but now he seems different- for the better. Ted usually doesn't take well to new people. And he has a real hard time gettin’ along with...smart people. But he really seems to tolerate you, which doesn't sound like much, but it is for Ted."   
I nodded. He did seem like he had changed a lot since I had first met him, that day in town with Charlotte..    
I looked back to Bill, who was giving Blue a sideways look. 

"Can he do anything else, or does he just stare?" 

“He can sing.”

Bill shuddered.

“I guess I’d rather have the staring then.”   
I agreed.    
“I can’t believe how young he is…”

I knew this must be hard for Bill, to see someone around the age of his own child, in a place beyond death, but not quite alive… Someone less than half his age, that could have killed both him and his daughter if I hadn’t found them...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	14. Chapter fourteen

After all of my research, my most sound theory so far is that if enough red blood cells can be replaced, the body will resume its functions and start to get rid of the goo. But there were many problems with this, and I doubt the success of any experiments following it.

One thing I did know was that I couldn’t just start pumping any random blood into Blue’s body, that wouldn’t end well. Luckily I had three other people, three other possible chances to get a matching blood type. But, if none of them worked, I had no idea what I would do. I took blood samples from everyone and tested it with Blue's, to see whose blood his body wouldn't immediately reject.   
Wouldn't you know it, but Ted seemed to have the same blood type. Why not?    
Ted seemed plenty eager to help. The only problem is that he can only give me so much blood at a time. He also hasn't been allowed to drink, so he's been a little bit on edge. Luckily, Blue isn't a very large human, so I don't imagine it will take too terribly long for his immune system to kick in. And, as funny as everyone else thought it was, Ted was not amused when Bill offered to make him a Shirley Temple.   
"So doc, what's the dealio with my blood?"   
"Well, It's a very tricky process. I have to pump out his infected blood while also pumping your clean blood, while being careful not to kill him with too much or too little blood."   
A voice from the doorway pipes up.   
"Do you think this will work for everyone?"   
I turn and look Bill in the eyes. Honestly, I've given up on finding a cure. All I want is to save one person. But he looks so hopeful, and Alice is right behind him... And now Ted's staring at me too.   
"It's...I can't say for sure, yet. This may not even work for Blue here... We can only hope..."   
My words fell over the room like a fog. No one said anything. I had never really addressed the very possible chance that it may be entirely impossible to reverse the effects of the blue shit. I turned my attention from the people behind me back to my work in front of me. That’s all I could do. That’s what I always have done, when things get serious, I bury myself in my work, so that I don’t have to think about any implications.   
  
Every day, I make sure Blue is knocked out before I begin the blood transfusions. Once I finish, all we can do is wait for him to come to. I've taken the tape off, so that we can take note of any changes in his behaviors. Over the course of about a week, he became a lot less violent. Eventually he stopped singing all together. 

  
After two very stressful weeks of blood swapping, I put him under for what I thought would be the last time. When I had taken a sample of his blood the previous day, under half of it was the blue shit.    
  
It took longer than usual for him to come around. So I left him alone.    
I walked out of my lab and saw everyone gathered around the coffee table in my front room. 

“Hey, we found a deck of cards, care to join us?”

I sat down on the ground in between Alice and Bill. Ted smiled.

“How long have you been in that lab, Henry?”

I shrugged, unable to even give an answer. I’d lost count of the days. 

Ted dealt out the cards for a game of BlackJack. This, this was a really nice distraction. Joking around, offering up hilariously impossible bets, getting to look at Ted the whole time, it almost made me forget about Blue.  
  
I looked at my watch. I had left him for about three hours. I stood up and stretched.   
"I should get back in there, check up on Blue..."   
Ted stood up as well.   
"I'll go with you."   
We walked in to see Blue, staring at us. Nothing unusual. But then he looked around, blinking a few times. His eyes darted back to us, looking us up and down.   
"Hello?"   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	15. Chapter fifteen

Ted leaned out of the doorway.   
"Bill! Alice! Get in here!"   
Blue flinched slightly at Ted’s loud voice. 

“What happened? Is everything o-”

Bill fell silent as he realized what was going on.

“Who are you people? What is- Why am I tied up?”

“Oh...right, sorry.”

I quickly grabbed a pair of scissors and cut his zipties, then took a step back. He remained seated, rubbing his wrists. He looked scared, understandably. I looked around at everyone else, but they were all too shocked to say anything. I took a deep breath.

“My name is Profe- Henry Hidgens, this is Ted, Bill, and his daughter Alice.”

I pointed to each of them as I introduced them. Bill waved slightly, Alice smiled, and Ted remained motionless. Blue tried to stand up, but his legs gave out almost immediately. 

“Ah, sorry. You might want to take it easy for a while, you’ve been in that chair for about a month and have had a lot of blood work done recently so-”

The look of confusion on his face grew more and more with every word.

“Um, this might sound weird but, how much do you- what’s the last thing you remember?”

He looked down, thinking very hard. We all stayed silent as he struggled. After a minute, he looked back up.

“I don’t- I...nothing.”

I had expected something like this.

“Well okay...So, this - I’m not quite sure how to put this,.. You live in a town called Hatchetfield, and a while ago, a meteor crashed. This meteor was carrying a deadly pathogen, which spread to most of our citizens, including you. We here are what I believe to be the only survivors.”

I paused for a second to let him process all of that.

“I used to be a biology professor, and when I found Bill and Alice, I also found you, and brought your infected body here to my lab, looking for a cure. As you can see, I, more or less cured you. And- since we couldn’t really talk to you before, we’ve been calling you Blue, because of the blue color of the virus.”

As he worked himself through all of that, I turned to look at the three behind me. Bill had his arm around Alice’s shoulders, and Ted looked pale. He met my eyes and slowly backed out of the room. 

 

Bill and I decided  that the air mattress should be moved down to the lab for Blue. Alice would stay on the bed in the spare room, Bill would sleep in my room, Ted would stay on the couch, and I would figure out sleeping arrangements in the lab, to be near Blue, at least for the first couple nights. Once we had figured that out, Bill and I went to go get the air matress.

On my way upstairs, I saw Ted sitting at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. I wanted to go comfort him, but decided against it. He probably needed some time alone…

 

I barely even saw Ted over the next couple days, I was so busy working with Blue. After his transition from infected to normal, he’s had terrible headaches,some so bad I had to knock him back out. I didn’t like it, and a part of me was afraid he would come back infected, but it was the only thing I could do. I couldn’t bear to see him suffer so much. I had pulled a few pillows and a blanket into the lab, sleeping on the floor. But as uncomfortable as the floor was, I didn’t spend much time sleeping. For the first couple days, Blue was waking up multiple times a night, filling the whole house with blood-curdling screams, caused by indescribable nightmares. 

 

The few times I had seen her, Alice seemed to be taking this all surprisingly well. She did tell me that Ted was really struggling. She said he had been drinking a lot more since Blue woke up. She had even tried to ask him about it once, but he refused to say anything to her. A few times, I had seen him standing outside of the lab, but he never came in, and never stayed long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated


	16. Chapter sixteen

Blue was still really weak, but he’s made progress. He been able to stand up and walk around, but not for very long before he needed to sit back down.

 

Once Blue’s nightmares started showing up less and less, Bill offered to spend a night or two down in the lab, so that I could sleep in a bed for the first time in over a week. Normally I would have insisted on staying in the lab, but my back was killing me, so I gladly agreed.  
  
I was sitting on the edge of my bed, staring out the window, when I heard a light knocking on the door.   
"Henr- Professor? Is that you in there?"   
"Yes Ted, it's me."   
The door creaked open, and he shuffled in. He looked disheveled, in a way that I was very familiar with. The light from the full moon only illuminated the tiredness of his face, the dark circles under his eyes almost half as dark as mine.  
"Have you been drinking? I told you, you shouldn't be drinking very much for the next few days at least, you lost a lot of blood."  
Silence.   
"Come sit over here with me."   
Ted stumbled over, and plopped himself down next to me on the bed. He stared out the window, lost in thought or black-out drunk, it was hard to tell.  
"You can't find a cure, can you? For everyone? I know you got Blue, but you can't do that for everyone..."  
I sighed. I don’t like having to answer these hard questions, but I know I should.

"No, Ted, I'm afraid I haven't gotten any closer to finding a cure for everyone."  
He rubbed his temples for a second. Then he nodded.  
"That's... That's alright."  
He patted my thigh comfortingly, but forgot to remove his hand.  
"You've done more than I ever could."  
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I put my arm around his shoulders, hoping he wouldn’t pull away. Instead, he leaned closer, putting his head on my shoulder.

“Hey I’m... sorry about running out like that, on that first day we actually met Blue… I just- He’s so… so young. Like, before, when I’d see him sitting in the lab, he was just an infected person, but I guess it really hit me when we first heard him speak- and just the way he- the look on his face when- he just seemed to struggle so much with everything, and the world is ending or whatever... He’s just a kid…”

A few tears feel silently from his face, landing on my chest, leaving small dark spots on my shirt. I squeezed his arm to comfort him, and he turned his face closer, pressing into my shoulder. I could feel his back rise and fall with his sobs as he cried. I rested my cheek on the top of his head. Eventually, he calmed down, but I could still feel his shaky breath, hot against my arm.

“Where have you been Henry…”

I barely heard him, he was so quiet.

“Right here Ted.”

He looked up at me, but I looked out the window, avoiding eye contact. But he kept staring.

“Henry…”

I took a deep breath, turning to look into his eyes, inches away from mine.

“Yes?”

“Henry I-”

Suddenly, there was a loud crash from downstairs. I shot up, accidentally causing Ted to fall over on to the bed. I ran down the stairs. Alice, who had been reading on the couch, was already on her feet. I followed her, passing Blue in the kitchen, drinking hot chocolate and looking confused, to the back room where Bill stood sheepishly, surrounded by a pile of fallen boxes.

“Sorry I-”

I interrupted him.

“Is anyone hurt?”

“No, I-”

I didn’t care, and turned, leaving the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	17. Chapter seventeen

When I got back up to my room, Ted was lying face up on the bed, eyes closed.

“Is everyone okay?”

I sat down next to him on the bed, and he yawned.

“Yes, Bill just accidentally knocked over some boxes downstairs.”

“Hmm.”

I leaned back, resting my head on his leg. He sat up, but when I went to remove myself, his fingers found their way into my hair. I closed my eyes as they moved gently across my scalp. When he stopped, I opened my eyes. He was looking down at me.

“I’m... not drunk, just so you know.”

“I- okay…”

I continued to stare into his eyes. They really were beautiful. Then he looked out the window. I pushed myself up into a sitting position. Now he was the one avoiding eye contact.

“Hey, Ted?”

“Mmm?”

He seemed distracted. Too bad.

“Earlier, like just a few minutes ago, you looked like you were about to say something…”

He closed his eyes.

“...What were you-”

He turned to look at me, staring deep into my eyes. His own eyes were filled with something I hadn’t seen before…

“Ted-”

He didn’t let me finish, pressing his lips to mine, knocking me backwards onto the bed behind me.

  
I felt Ted’s hand move up into my hair as my hand slowly crept up his arm and across to his tie, loosening it enough for the buttons underneath to be undone. Slowly I moved my lips from his, down his neck. I continued across his chest, until he pulled me back up for another kiss. Eventually, we ended up with his face nuzzled into my collarbone. I could feel his hot breath through my turtleneck as I kissed the top of his head, slipping my hands under his shirt, running them up and down his back. I could feel his heart beating on top of mine, as we fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


	18. Chapter eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry

The next morning, I woke up wrapped in Ted’s arms. I stroked his hair, until he woke up. He looked at me sleepily, smiled, then nuzzled his face back into my chest.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

He just hummed back in response. I pressed a kiss into his hair.

 

Suddenly, we heard Bill yell from downstairs. Ugh, not again. But it was followed by a scream, making it feel a lot more urgent than last night.

 

I sprinted downstairs, grabbing my shotgun from beside the front door, trying not to trip as I ran to the lab. From the doorway, I saw Blue standing in front of Bill.

“What’s-”

Blue turned his head, red blood dripping from his smiling mouth. Bill’s shoulder was torn open, the same red blood staining his shirt, tinged with blue. Behind me, I heard Ted run in, cursing under his breath, still buttoning up his shirt. He turned to his right, trying to stop Alice from entering the room. I raised my gun and shot blue in the head, Bill taking a step back as the boy collapsed. Alice pushed past Ted, and gasped loudly, as if all the air had been knocked from her lungs. Ted managed to grab her arms, holding her back. Gun still raised, I turned it towards Bill. He looked at me, then Ted, and finally turning his attention towards Alice. I could tell he knew it was too late.

“Alice, I-I’m so sorry... I love you…”

I tried to tune out Alice’s choked tears, watching as Bill closed his eyes. When they opened, they shone bright blue.

“...Dad?”

He took a step towards Alice a smile growing on his opening mouth. She screamed, backing up into Ted, and before he could take another step, I pulled the trigger. His lifeless body hit the floor. Ted held Alice up as her body went limp, her sobs echoing through the lab. My shaking fingers loosened their grip on the gun, letting it clatter on the ground. Alice broke away from Ted’s arms, he didn’t fight her. She ran to her father, falling to her knees, clutching his body in her arms. After a moment, I put my hand on her shoulder, but she clung to her father’s corpse. I looked to Ted for help, but he was still staring at Bill, his eyes empty. 

I walked back up to my room and sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the wall for hours. I didn’t feel like moving. At some point, Alice came upstairs, and locked herself in her room. I couldn’t help but hear the heart-wrenching sounds of loss coming from her closed bedroom door. A few moments later, Ted walked up to her door, but he didn’t say anything, just stood there. I don’t think I would know what to say either. After a while, he entered my room, staying silent, and sat next to me on the bed, about a foot away from me.

I don’t remember falling asleep that night, but I remember waking up. Another nightmare, my subconscious forcing me to relive that day’s previous events. Blue’s insanity, Bill’s acceptance, his body on the floor, lying in a growing puddle of blood, red mixed with blue. Ted was still sitting up, lifting his head from his hands to look at me. His eyes and nose were red, tear stains streaking down his face. I rubbed my eyes and layed back down on the bed, trying to calm my breathing. I felt the bed shift as Ted moved himself up next to me. He grabbed my hand, rubbing my knuckles between his rough fingers. I couldn’t hear Alice anymore. Bill’s last words, as simple as they were, haunted me, reverberating throughout my entire body. I didn’t fall back asleep.

The next day, I found myself holding a cigarette. I hadn’t smoked one in a very long time, tried to kick the habit, but I always kept a pack in my house. Why? I don’t know. But right now, all I wanted was the comfort of a familiar bitter taste in my mouth, to numb the pain in my throat, hoarse from crying. To fill my lungs with something other than empty air. The lighter clicked once, twice, three times, but never even sparked. I threw it against the wall in frustration. Tears pricked at my eyes. I didn’t even care anymore, and I let the cigarette fal to the floor. I heard Ted walk in, felt him gently place his hand on my back. I turned and wrapped my arms around him tightly, burying my face in his neck. After a second, I felt him raise his arms, squeezing me back just as hard. Later that day, Ted and I buried Bill and Blue out in the front yard. Alice stood and watched silently from the doorway. She reminds me so much of Chad, after Steve died. 

Since that day, I’ve had the same nightmare almost every night, but Ted is always there to help me fall back asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments greatly appreciated  
> :)


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